


Dating Detox

by MariStellata



Category: Let It Die (Video Game)
Genre: Acts of Kindness, Arcades, Comfort, F/M, Meeting the Parents, School Life, Slow Burn, Uncle Death as one of the guys, Uncle Death has some dark moments, childhood friendships, highschool crushes, street vendors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-07 16:40:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21461185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MariStellata/pseuds/MariStellata
Summary: (On hiatus until further notice) This is a bit of a slow burn. I think Naomi is pretty cute visually but I hate the personality she exudes in the game. Hopefully this helps her become a bit more likable? Anyway I’m still new to this and trying to figure out what writing style works for me.I’m mostly trying my hand at  world building here in let it dies sandbox. I feel like there is a missed opportunity for lore building in the game  so maybe I’ll include some fan theories as I go.
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

Naomi Detox. This little firecracker is a Hater Arcade employee. And the only female that regularly frequents the place. Though she would rather be anywhere else. Has annoying tendencies to talk about her ex/current boyfriends.  
Her brown hair is cut in a cute bob. She wears a harajuku style white hoodie with doll pink trim , hood, pocket slots and baby blue sleeves with clouds on them over her boring school uniform. Also wears red sweatpants under the school girl skirt presumably because the arcade gets chilly. Always has her pink kawaii deco flip phone during her shifts texting up a storm to avoid talking to the gamers who frequent the establishment.  
Despite her adorable appearance she can be quite harsh especially to people she considers to look ‘emo’. People like your friend Meijin, a admitted veteran gamer with quirky 80’s fashion sense. It was a bit annoying how rude she was to him and about him... well maybe she was a bit of a bitch, she acted that way to most people. she was the most attractive girl you knew however so maybe thats just the way it goes?  
She was a terrible girl to have a crush on.

But dang did you have it bad.  
Luckily you keep somewhat up to date with current trends thanks to your annoying younger sister. If you could track how many times she had called you a nerd and refused to leave the house until you found something more ‘cool’ to wear you would be crazy. The nagging was useful though.  
It seemed Naomi would at least wave at you or shoot you a smile whenever you swung by the arcade on Saturdays. That was more then you could say for most of the guys who frequented the place. Sometimes she would even motion you over to gossip about her day. Being in the same year/grade meant you generally knew most of the same rumors anyway but it was humorous hearing her spin on things. She loved drama and blowing things out of proportions. 

Your friend Meijin tries to convince you shes a lost cause. Poor guy never has a chance with the ladies with that fro. He hides random stuff in there... and who knows when he washes that mess. But you’ve been friends since you both where kids and him being a only child you guess he just never had a bullying sibling to keep him in touch with current fashion. He was your best friend and a brother you wish you had regardless.  
Another friend of yours who frequents the shop was ‘Uncle Death’ as everyone calls him. Usually y’all would go skateboard and spray tag various places around the city but somedays he just felt like taking it easy and button bashing at the arcade with you and Meijin. He was a pretty chill dude. Never liked to talk much about himself but nothing wrong with that.  
One day you happened to be playing Mushroom cop co-op with Meijin when Uncle Death strolls up in his relaxed manner and leans against the machine waiting for the two of you to finish the mission. Once you both beat the level you post your high-scores then stand up looking over at him and he hands you a piece of paper with a number written on it in girly handwriting.  
“ hey man, whats this?” You ask curious as to the point of this.  
“ Buddy that would be Naomi’s phone number.” He motions back to the desk where she is sitting playing on her phone, occasionally glancing your way. When she notices you she smiles and does a finger wave with her index finger before going back to typing. “She asked me to give it to you. Don’t know why you would want to get all mixed up in that though. “ he seems mildly concerned but like Meijin he knows you have a crush on her.

You smile warmly and nod at Uncle Death. “ Thanks man, I owe you. Ah you think i should go ahead and text her now?” Meijin pops you on the back. “Dude just do it this is getting painful. You know she’s probably just bored and between boys.” Uncle Death just shrugs.  
You shoot her a text so she can save your number and decide to leave it to her knowing shes enough of a talker to carry a conversation by herself if she’s interested. 

After the excitement of finally getting your crushes number y’all decide to play a few games since its still early in the day. You find yourself paying extra attention to your phone though it hasn’t notified you of any messages yet. After about an hour and a half of slight paranoia you tell the guys you’re getting a bit bored. They’ve noticed you haven’t gotten a response back from Naomi too but they don’t say anything.  
Death heads to the front and gets his skate board from where he set it down near the register. “All right my dudes let go have some fun!” He waves at Naomi as he leaves but doesn’t check to see her response. You’re kinda glad as you don’t feel the need to say goodbye now that Death has. 

Once you guy get down to the indoor skate park Meijin scratches his neck. “she probably just wants to see how much she can frustrate you. You know she loves making drama.” He sighs annoyed. “sucks cause she’s pretty cute for a fellow upperclassmen.”  
You shrug. Naomi has a few quirks, and you wouldn’t put it past her to just want to toy with you. “Maybe, though she could just be texting her friends and got sucked into some girly he said she said also .” You frown as Death boards off to practice some shredding tricks. “ do you think she even knows I like her?”  
“Dude. If she doesn’t she’s dumber than i thought she was. Which wouldn’t surprise me with her preppy girl BS but who really knows. I think she only pays attention to people she thinks she can get something from.” Meijin states kicking at the ground. Moments like this remind you how obviously rude and snarky she is to Meijin.  
You sigh and watch Uncle Death manage a pretty cool landing before somehow falling off the board as though he lost balance yelling “FUCK! You didnt see that!” As he does so. You can’t help but chuckle as you head over to check on the guy. “ you alright dude? That looked pretty gnarly! You nailed that jump, how did you loose your balance?”  
He coughs as though he’s embarrassed and admits “I got a lil cocky with the landing, made me forget to correct for the tilt and then i tried to overcorrect it to late.” His honesty was one of your favorite things about the guy so once you check and make sure he didn’t sprain anything you help him up from where he’s now just sitting.

After you goof around a bit longer taking turns skateboarding your stomach grumbles reminding you its about an hour past lunch time. The three of you , Meijin, Uncle Death, and yourself decide to head out to get some ramen and hang out before heading home. You are always surprised at the commitment Uncle Death has to his persona. Never removing the mask even when slurping up noodles.  
It suit the guy though, always the goofball.  
Meijin was struggling against a jackal in one of the higher levels of Death Drive 128 , you’re pretty sure he’s just overthinking it. Uncle Death has a few tips and tricks though so who are you to pass those up. Once y’all finish up your noodle bowls Death Heads off saying he has some errands to run leaving you and Meijin.  
You both live close to each other so when you stop by the convenience store on the way home he waits with you discussing some new manga you’ve heard was coming out soon. You really like this artists previous work in the horror genre but they seem to be moving more towards an action romance in this series. You hope its not going to turn into fan service.  
After you get some stuff for your parents and a cute bobble you figure you’re sister will like, you and Meijin begin walking towards home. At this point you’ve kinda decided Naomi gave you a fake number as a prank when Meijin who had been looking at something on his phone looks at you pointedly. “whats up?” You mutter.  
“ I sent you a meme a few minutes ago that was hilarious. Did you not get it?” He seems mildly amused.  
“Well my phone hasn’t gone off...” You freeze and turn to him, shuffling the bag to the other side as you get your phone out. Upon opening it you realize the reason you hadn’t gotten any messages from Naomi, or anyone else for that matter. “My phones dead...”


	2. Chapter 2

Once you get home you fumble trying to plug your phone in wondering how long it’s been dead. As the light comes on it starts to update. Shit maybe that’s what caused it to die in the first place. After about twenty minutes its finally charged and to your horror you have a ton of messages.  
Your biggest crush and she was going to think you hated her. Before reading the messages, you texted her “I’m sorry! I just got home and realized my phone died earlier. Just wanted to let you know so you wouldn’t think I was ignoring you.” Before you over explain anymore you click send and starts going through your missed messages.

You manages to get through about half of the ones she has sent you, mostly gushing over how she finds you to be cute, and wants you to come see her later when she clocks out today and you grimace checking the time she said she would be off work and realizing you have about forty minutes to get there.  
You rush putting on some fresh deodorant and combing through your hair to make sure it still looks decent. You start to leave before remembering your phone. You go back up to stairs skipping a few steps and grab it putting it in your pocket. You nearly knock your sister over in your hurry and let her know you got her a cute keychain bobble that’s on the counter in the kitchen as you bolt out the door.  
You manage to make it to the arcade a few minutes before her shift ends, though she seems a bit flustered. “I am so sorry! I didn’t realize my phone was dead!” You wheeze a bit out of breath. Leaning against the door frame.

She studies you for a moment and you catch the faintest of smiles as she turns and clocks out. Putting her name pin under the register. She turns back to you and you notice Death poke his head out from the back room and wave at you before clipping on a name tag and coming out.  
Shit she probably told him you had ignored her or something. You would have to tell him later. Well better to focus on the present and try to make it up to her.  
“Can I get you some ice cream or something? As an apology? Or are you hungry?” She hasn’t spoken yet just gets her bag together and starts to head towards you. It’s stressing you out more than thinking she didn’t respond to you earlier.

“I thought you were annoyed at me.” She says shyly. “ I know I sometimes get to excited and send to many messages... I figured I might have ran you off... especially when you guys left earlier... Uncle Death said your phone hadn’t made any noise so far as he noticed when you all were out earlier so he figured You just weren’t getting the messages.”  
You’ve never seen her so unsure about something. It makes you feel terrible. “No! I mean yeah, I wasn’t getting your messages but please don’t worry about it. I didn’t realize my battery was low when I texted you the first time or I would have warned you.” You try your best to explain away her worry. She smiles genuinely now and pokes you in the side. “alright then cutie. What was this about taking me to eat and get ice cream?”

“You kids be safe out!” Death shouts as you exit the arcade. You nod at him and give a thumbs up. You’re pretty sure he would be smiling if he could. Great, he was going to be picking at you later. You could feel it.

She tells you she wants to get Thai bubble tea, Takoyaki, and green tea mochi so you both go find some at the street vendors and shop around a bit. She seems to cheer up a bunch after getting something to eat. Food tends to make everything better in your experience.  
As the light fades from the sky you walk her home. She is chattering away about some girl she knows that hates her because this guy named Tom, or something likes her. It’s a bit convoluted and confusing so you just nod along. Before you know it, you’ve made it to the entry of her apartment building, and she smiles giving you a quick peck on the cheek and heading inside.

Once she’s out of site you fist bump and turn to head back home, stopping by the arcade on your way back. “Hey, Uncle Death!” Death glances up from the computer he was using, probably inputting new missions for death drive 128. Naomi was supposed to do that while she was on shift, but she claimed to be bad with computers. The few times she had messed with it either the server would stop responding or she’d accidentally cancel quest, which was frustrating when people where working on them.  
“Soooo how did it go?” He’s back to inputting data on the device. You’re a bit giddy so you respond, “Eh nothing to exciting, she did give me a kiss though.” “Isn’t that more of a western thing?” Death stops typing and narrows his eyes. You frown, “I don’t think it was as much about PDA as it was a thanks for hanging out kiss. She only kissed my cheek and it happened so fast I didn’t really register what happened till she was already inside her apartment building.”  
Death shrugs “I don’t really get all the draw of it. It seems weird to me. She was a bit upset earlier, you turn your phone on silent or something?” You scratch the back of your neck in embarrassment, “it seems my phone died when I texted her earlier. I didn’t realize it till Meijin sent me something and asked me why I hadn’t checked it.” Death nods going back to typing for a bit. “well I need to finish up these quest queues, you are coming by Tomorrow?” You give him a thumbs up heading for the door, “sure man if you need anything text me, I’m heading home... again.” He nods continuing typing. “Will do.”

On your way home you finish going through your missed messages, noticing Naomi has asked if you would go shopping with her in the afternoon tomorrow. You would still be able to hang out with Meijin and Death earlier on in the day, so you responded the affirmative. You also notice the meme Meijin sent you, it’s a goat screaming, it’s funny.

You make it back home as your mom is fixing dinner, she raises her brow seeing you come in. “you were out longer than usual? When did you make it home with groceries? “  
You begin telling her about your day, “I was with the guys early and picked them up on the way home, there is a girl that works at the arcade that asked me if I would walk her home when she got off work—“  
She frowns dicing up some mushrooms, “Is she cute?” Your moms back to cooking and you smile. “Yeah, she’s pretty cute. She’s the same year as me in school.”  
“She makes good grades. She smart?” Here go the 99 questions. “I don’t know mom.” Your mom sighs and puts the lid on the pot turning to you after rinsing her hands and blotting them on her apron.

“Ok you will tell me more about this girl if you start dating or something right?” You laugh, “yes ma’am. I will!” She smiles. “Good, now run along and get your sister, super is nearly ready.” You nod heading upstairs and tap on your sister’s door, “foods ready! Mom says come eat. “

After dinner you help your sister with the dishes as your parents watch the news. Technically it was her turn, but you needed some advice.


	3. Chapter 3

You and Naomi have been doing the rounds checking out different shops in the Harajuku district as per your sister’s suggestion. It was going well; you had even managed to score some skull shaped sunglasses. You figure Uncle death would get a kick out of them.  
Naomi seems to have only brought you along to model various outfit for you. She was finding the most unusually sexy clothes you had ever seen sold in the district. She would wink at you and tell you to wait, next thing you know she prances out of the dressing room wearing some oddly provocative apparel. It was turning into a test of self-control you hadn’t anticipated.  
At the next store, this quant boutique, Naomi sneaks you into the dressing room with a snarky grin. “Thank you for helping me out today. I’ve had a lot of fun!” She leans in and kisses you, on the lips this time!  
As you close your eyes and go to kiss her back you hear death cackle “hah! You’ve been punked!” You open your eyes in horror as Naomi goes and tugs at her scalp, pulling all the skin from her neck up; away to reveal Uncle Death laughing maniacally. “Seriously bro, no homo.”  
You wake with a start grabbing your chest and breathing heavy. You were already nervous about shopping later. This nightmare wasn’t helping.

After a shower and splashing your face with cold water to wash the nightmare away from your mind, you put on the outfit your sister had helped you assemble last night. One thing you where thankful for about her obsession with fashion trends was how she would help you when it came to things like this. Much less stress for you. You should probably try to find her something cute while you’re out today to thank her.

After getting ready and making sure your phone is charged this time and has an extra charge pack for it. You head to the kitchen setting out the silverware and napkins quietly before you begin fixing food. You enjoyed cooking on Sundays and breakfast was your specialty. You hear the soft patter of footsteps as your younger sister stumbles in rubbing her eyes and throws herself into a chair.

“Want some extra syrup?” You start to plop a few pancakes on a plate for her and she nods groggily. You pour a good helping of syrup over them and slide the plate to her. “You’ll have to wait a minute for the bacon...” She nods digging into her pancakes eagerly.  
As you finish up and start the coffee pot your mom hobbles in and settles in her chair across from your sister. “thank you for fixing breakfast sweetheart.” She smiles warmly at you as you set a fresh cup of coffee down for her. “hey, it’s the least I can do. Dad still gona be asleep a while you think? Should I fix him a plate and some coffee for now or save it for later?” You ask as you finish fixing her plate and setting it in front of her.  
“His work schedule has been pretty rough on him lately. I think we should let him sleep in a bit...he needs a good rest.” she sighs. He seemed to be working all the time lately. He had needed to take more shifts to make up for your mom no longer bringing in income.  
Since your sister was born your mother became a stay at home mom, though not intentionally. She had nearly died having your sister and it had left her with some medical and mobility issues. She still managed to help you and your sister with homework and do cooking. However, her lessened mobility made walking and lifting a bit of a struggle sometimes.  
You had been doing some odd jobs after school to help ease the financial burden a little. Most of it went towards groceries and your personal savings. It also gave you some spending money. You snap back to the present realizing you had zoned out.  
Coming back to your surroundings you notice your mom and sister have finished eating and are now at the couch. Mom is braiding your sister’s hair while they gossip about the neighbors. Finishing up cleaning the dishes, you set your dads breakfast in the microwave to keep it warm a little while.  
You give your mom a soft pat on the shoulder, so you have a moment to speak, “I’m heading out hanging’ with the guys some and I’m supposed to go shopping later. If you need me to get anything text me?” She smiles and pats your hand back. “Alright but stay out of trouble okay?”  
You put a serious face on to shrug noncommittally and she frowns skeptical, before you can’t help but chuckle. “Kidding! Love you mom, see you later.” You head out to Meijin house.  
By now its 10 but knowing Meijin he probably hasn’t even slept, he rarely does with his insomnia issues. You do your signature knock on his door and hear footsteps.  
You wait a moment knowing Meijin mom is probably looking through the peephole on the door. As the door swings open a tall middle-aged woman with a mess of darks bouncy curls smiles down at you. “how’s my second and favorite son doing?!” She jokes motioning you in. “MEIJIN!!! YOUR FRIEND IS HERE!” You hear a curse. “Give me a minute to get to a save!” He doesn’t yell quite as loud as his mom, but you hear him, nonetheless.

While you wait for him to come out, his mother, Ms. Keaton, asks how your mom is doing, they usually visit with each other at least once a month. The main reason Meijin and you had gotten to be such good friends was how close your moms where. After a couple of minutes of waiting Meijin comes out, and his mom swats him in the arm. “so rude! Your friend comes to see you and you are playing those video games again!” She pesters playfully. You say bye as Meijin waves and you both head out to the arcade.  
“You gona beat the tower today?” Meijin asks. You have about five floors to go but you have a bad feeling about it. “I don’t know dude. I’m not sure I’m up to it today. I kinda want to stick with something easy so I don’t end up in a bad mood later. I’m supposed to be taking Naomi out shopping later so I need to stay in good spirits for that.” You feel a little guilty, usually Meijin and you hangout late on Sundays but who knows if you’ll get another chance to go out with Naomi if you don’t do this. “You got it bad bro.” Meijin shakes his head, patting you on the shoulder. “Let me know if you need an excuse to leave early?” He jokes though you can hear the truth in the statement. You know he has your back you just hope you won’t need an escape plan.  
You both manage to make it to the Hater Arcade noting Uncle Death seems to be napping on the desk while Naomi is spinning slowly on a swivel chair in the back office typing on her phone and blowing gum bubbles. Its oddly cute. Meijin jabs you in the ribs holding up a marker and motioning to Uncle Death. You smirk and nod watching him sidled up and start doodling an eye in the middle of Deaths forehead and then a curly mustache along his cheek bones before recapping the marker.  
You snicker and walk over to Uncle Deaths Metropolitan Golf machine and booting it up for a match. You liked the relaxing music on this one, and it had pretty scenery. You wonder if places looked like this back before the earth rage. It reminded you of old photographs one of your elderly neighbors had shown you.   
After getting a few good scores your phone buzzes so you exit the game to check your device. You had a text from Uncle Death, you glance around to see him looking at you over his glasses, it’s intimidating. He motions you over, so you do, seeing he still has the drawings on his face. “what’s up?” you ask trying to keep a straight face. “Naomi didn’t wake me to start her shift. She clocked in though. Now I have to adjust my timecard.” He seems much grouchier than usual; he might not find the candy skull look as amusing as you and Meijin did. Oops.  
“she probably was trying to be nice; we all know you don’t hardly sleep since you work here all the time. ah hey you might want to go um check a mirror… looks like someone gave you a makeover while you were out buddy.” You smile weakly and he storms to the back. Naomi is giving you a sly smirk, seems like she caught you and Meijin’s prank earlier. That can’t be right… she was playing on her phone at the time. You wish she weren’t so hard to read.   
“Well you look pretty handsome today,” she seems amused. “did you get all dressed up just for me?” You stammer remembering your sister had promised this outfit combo would be a hit, guess she was onto something. “ah well I figured it was a good look so you wouldn’t be embarrassed being seen with me.” Foot meet mouth. She laughs and shakes her head, “I’d never be embarrassed being seen with you! now Meijin on the other hand… He’s a bit of a mess… He should dress more like you. He just dresses so… emo! Ugh.” You frown taking in her snide comments about Meijin. You wish she wouldn’t be so closed minded when it came to him.   
Uncle Death comes back in a bit more his usual self, bounce to his step and all. It seems rather then try to scrub the marker off he had drawn more designs on his face. “hey! I look pretty cool huh Detox?” she glances over and seeing all the patterns on his face she quickly glances down to her phone and nods. “perfect as always Uncle Death.” You raise an eyebrow, you’re pretty sure she blushed a little bit just then.   
You know she has a bit of a crush on Death, you remember one of her tangents being how she thought Uncle Death was going to be a pro skateboarder and how he was handsome and bunch of other stuff. It was kinda cute to watch her fangirl, but it also made you a bit jealous. You know you shouldn’t be; Uncle Death doesn’t seem to care one way or the other about her. She isn’t his type. But you still wish she would talk about you like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See if you can catch my references as the story continues. I did a bunch of looking around the arcade and research for some of the background info, it will probably become more apparent as I continue working on this story. I want to try to bring it more to life as I go.


	4. Chapter 4

Uncle Death has insisted on keeping the candy skull look on his face, you wonder if Meijin’s annoyed the prank backfired; he probably hasn’t even noticed yet. As it gets close to time for you and Naomi to go shopping you shoot Meijin and Uncle Death both a text. Meijin’s busy practicing on the Concrete Jackals machine since he has a competition coming up to defend his high score.  
Uncle Death waves you over before you go. “Guess you weren’t feeling the tower today?” He asks. You shake your head. “I’m going to try to get through the slog of the last few levels next week. Do you need me to come by and do any work after school this week?” He chuckles. “Know anything about ice-cream machines? Ours kicked the bucket recently and I need to find someone who can fix it.”  
You think for a minute “I can look into it? I’ll let you know by Wednesday if I can fix it.” He nods, “Sounds good my dude. Now you two kiddos better get out of here before I schedule Naomi another shift.” he winks and goes to clock himself in nearly bumping into Naomi as he does so. She has left her sweatpants in the back today you guess it’s warm enough out she should be fine. It looks like she changed clothes while she was in the back.  
You take a moment to take in her entire outfit change and look at her more closely. She’s wearing a baby blue T-shirt under her jacket and faded denim shorts with light pink thigh high socks with little white stripes on the tops. Her shoes are baby blue as well. She color coordinated her outfit to match her jacket and its rather cute.  
You smile, “well aren’t you adorable, you get all dressed up for me?” She grins and spins around as though showing off her outfit. “You like it?” You nod and motion for her to lead the way out of the arcade.  
“so, where should we go shopping today?” She murmurs. “Well I need to go see if I can find something for my sister in the Harajuku district, you think there might be anything there you’re looking for?” She grins widely “YES!!!! Totally!!! That’s like one of my favorite places!”  
“Takeshita Dori it is!” You both head that way.  
You browse a variety of shops along the street. Finding some cute clothes in ACDC RAG. Stocking up on school supplies at a stationary shop nearby you are still looking for something to get for your sister. You stumble across a shop called Kiddyland and find the perfect thing. There’s a neat journal that is very kawaii deco and has a squishy cover that you sister would love.  
Naomi tries on a couple of things finding some new apparel that suits her. You’ve been having a good time; she’s been quieter than usual, but she seems to be thinking about something, so you don’t push it. You end up asking her about school and an assignment your class has been given recently and you both discuss the parts that are giving you a hard time. It’s good to be able to talk to someone else about it, she has a different insight than you do, and it helps you understand the theory a bit better.  
After all the walking around for a few hours you and Naomi are starving. You end the afternoon around five pm with a trip to the Kawaii Monster Cafe, Naomi has been before, but she wants you to try it. The decor is wild, and everything is very cute and cartoony. Maybe you’ll treat your sister to coming here sometime if she keeps her grades up.

After your meal you walk Naomi home to her apartment, finding yourself carrying her shopping bags. She offers you to come in for a bit, but you figure it would be rude to her parents, just some random boy showing up. No thanks. You let her know you got to get home to finish up your homework for tomorrow, she seems bummed but understanding.  
On your way back home, you bump in Meijin as he’s leaving the arcade. He smacks your shoulder, “left me to train on my own? Hope you had a good time. What do you get there in the bag?” You laugh and pull the notebook out that you bought for your sister. “Present for short stuff at home. You jealous?” Meijin shakes his head vehemently. “nah man. Mom wants us to have dinner again sometime. She’s been nagging me about it.” You chuckle, “yeah, she probably is looking for an excuse to get you out of you room for a bit.”  
You continue joking around till he heads off to his place and you continue to yours. As you come in the door you see your mom napping on the couch and cover her with a blanket. She looks like she fell asleep watching the news again.

You head up to your room and knock at your sister’s door on the way there. You hear her chatting on her phone and ask someone to wait that she will call them back later. The door opens and you hold out the shopping bag. She grins and takes it tugging you over to sit at her desk while she pulls out the notebook.  
“Oh, this is super cute!!!! So yall did go to Harajuku?” You nod and she flips through looking at how the different sections have different borders. “Soooo how did it go?” You laugh and begin telling her what you both had ended up doing and described the Kawaii Monster Cafe. She was especially enthused when you offered to take her if she kept her grades up.  
Once done telling her about the day and listening to her talk about some friends from her school you head to your room to start on homework. You get most of it done but head down to see if your mom is up to look over some things a help with the last one. She’s bundled up on the couch but awake now. “how’s the homework going?” You hold out your work offering it to her. “It’s ok, I was wondering if you could help me with the last problem?” She nods looking through them. “these all look right to me. This last one is a trick question though. You can ignore this first sentence; it doesn’t pertain to the problem. You need to pay attention to this here.” She circles a few sections and hands it back to you. “that is what you are going to need to plug into the formula. Do you need me to show you or you think you got it now? “you nod and thank her heading back up to your room. One of the perks of having a mom that used to teach college classes.

After finishing up you go back down to sit with mom on the couch and tell her about your day. You ask if you can take your sister to the Kawaii Monster Cafe if she keeps her grades up. Your mom beams at you. “I think that would be an excellent reward! You’re such a sweetheart. “she pulls you into a hug. “Thank you! I hate not being able to do things like that for you both.” She sighs. “It’s fine mom. Don’t stress about it. Ms. Keaton wants to have dinner sometime if you’re up to it by the way?” Your mom brightens up. “She is so sweet. I’m so glad you and Meijin are so close. Ill text her and see when works for us to schedule!”  
After a bit you go clean the dishes seeing your family had already had supper. It is getting close to nine by the time you finish so you head to bed.


	5. Chapter 5

As you head downstairs in the morning, you pat your dad on the shoulder sitting beside him. Mornings seem to be the only time you get to spend time with him. He smiles at you looking up from his I-pad, probably reading the news. “Hey junior, heard you offered to take your sister to a nice place if she keeps her grades up. We appreciate it, let me know when and I’ll give you some money for it.” You smile and shake your head. “No dad its fine really. I’ve been saving up money from all my odd jobs anyway. I got this.” He frowns but seems a bit relieved. “Well ok, but let me know if you need anything...”  
You nod “actually I’m going to try to fix this ice cream machine down at the arcade Wednesday...in your electric work have you done any type servicing for something like that before?” He nods much more cheerful, he loved talking about circuitry and servicing machines. while his work seems long and tedious, it was the perfect field for him and made decent money. “Actually yes, I’ll email you some of the common issues and fixes I’ve run into with them around lunch time. That work?” You nod enthusiastically. “That would be a huge help dad thanks!”  
Your mom taps her watch to get his attention. It’s time for him to head to work so he grabs another cup of coffee and kisses your mom’s forehead before heading out. She smiles handing him a bento for lunch. It’s sweet watching them interact in the mornings, one of the main reasons you get up so early aside from getting to spend time with dad. You hope you find someone to have that with someday.  
You chat with mom for a few minutes before heading up to wake your sister. She is not a morning person. Hopefully she will brighten up after having breakfast. You head to get finish getting your stuff together for school, making sure your phone is charged. Getting dressed and grabbing your bag you head back down since your sister slouching at the table groggily as mom slides her some diced up fruit trying to get her to perk up enough to go get dressed.  
After some coaxing from mom and fussing from you she finally goes. While she’s getting ready you help mom with slicing fruit and fixing the cereal bowls. Mom had fixed some delicious smoothies to go with yogurt and cereal for breakfast. Its tasty meal and filling. Your sister comes back down shortly, well put together and much more cheerful, the fruit must have worked. You chuckle.

After eating breakfast, you walk your sister to school meeting up with Meijin on the way there. Your sister loves to badger Meijin about his style and always asks to help him with his wardrobe, but he never agrees to it. Ms. Keaton is always trying to pressure him to spend time with your sibling because she wants them to date, but Meijin doesn’t seem all that interested. You can’t really blame him.  
Once you get to school your sister heads off to her own class as you and Meijin head for yours. “How do you deal with all that? She’s so ...” He seems lost for words. You just shrug. “She’s been a bit on the bossy side ever since she learned to talk, I honestly don’t notice anymore.” He groans, “mom thinks she would keep me in line. No thanks.” You give him a sideways glance and notice he seems a bit distracted.  
Maybe he is interested in her but doesn’t want to upset you. He’s one of the few guys you aren’t really worried about being around your sister. He’s still a virgin and doesn’t seem interested in that changing. And he wouldn’t be bothering her when she needs to be focused on homework especially if it would affect his game time. You know she has a strong personality, but you also know Meijin’s stubbornness would be a good balance and help her ease off on these bullying tendencies.  
The only issue would be if it didn’t work out between them, Meijin might not do well with the fallout. For now, you decide to just let it be. They don’t seem to know what they want any more then you do so worry about it is pointless. Besides you don’t feel like you could take sides if there were any issues between them.

School days seem to take forever. You had done well on your homework at least thanks to mom.

Looking around you notice Naomi surrounded by her usual posse. Meijin and you compare your lunches. His mom tries to pack him some neat bentos, today he has a Pokémon theme one today. There’s a chicken and rice ball shaped like a sleeping Pikachu with cheese melted over it so its yellow and pepperoni slices as the red cheeks. There’s a bunch of tomato and egg with seaweed holding them together for poke balls around it. It’s pretty cute but you aren’t sure about how it probably tastes. That’s Ms. Keaton for you.  
Yours is ordinary in comparison.  
Your mom had packed some of your favorite fruits with some cream cheese dip, some grilled chicken and rice, with some carrots and tomatoes on the side. It was delicious. Naomi catches you eye from across the room and Smiles at you. You wave and finish up.

After your classes you catch up with Meijin and head to the Arcade together. You play a few games and get Uncle Death to text you the pictures of the inside and back of the machine so you can check into it when you get home. You can’t stay to do it yourself because must head home early on school days. When you get home, you help your sister with her homework before working on yours with your mom. Once that’s done you help mom fix dinner.  
Your dad won’t be home till after your bedtime ... he rarely is. You use some of your free time before bed to investigate the ice cream machine issue. Thanks to your dads notes it doesn’t look like a difficult fix, from the pictures Uncle death has sent you. You let him know you’ll get it repaired Wednesday since you need to check on one of your neighbors tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 6

When you get home from school Tuesday you hurry through your homework. Your mom and sister are gossiping about one of the neighbors, Mrs. Yamada, the elderly woman who always fed the stray cats. You also are supposed to go over and help her today so you want to get done with homework as soon as you can.  
You overhear your mom and sister pondering if the neighbor’s daughter will ever come back and take care of the old lady since she has no one else. It’s kinda sad. If you remember her daughter Momoko had run off to travel the world at the age of 16.  
It was a shame because the daughter was gorgeous in the pictures old Mrs. Yamada had shown you. The poor woman hasn’t seen the girl in ages, but every now and then she gets mail and you go-over to read it for her. The old woman’s eyes don’t see good enough to read anymore.  
Your sister is skeptical of some of the stories you had retold but you found it fascinating. You wish you had met that girl, she sounded like an interesting person. If for no other reason, then because you were sure there was never a dull moment with her.  
You would go help Mrs. Yamada with things like changing lights, moving furniture/boxes and anything she wasn’t able to do anymore. When she didn’t have things for you to do you would often just help clean her apartment and tell her about your school and whatever random topic she seemed to come up with. She was a sweet old lady, so you didn’t mind. She would always insist on paying you and sending you home with cookies and treats for your family. You mostly did it because she seemed lonely. Her husband had passed away a couple of years back so now it was just her and the cats.  
Mrs. Yamada would often tell you stories, sometimes about herself when she was younger, or some story her daughter had told her in a letter, and on rare occasions she would talk about her late husband. She would pull out an old photo album and show you pictures of faraway places and times before the earth rage.  
You wish you could have seen the world back when it was lush and green, back before the Concrete jungle of real life and the tower of barbs seemed to be the only scenery diversity. You wonder if there are places that still have plant life, you assume there must be or where would the produce from the grocery stores come from?  
Mrs. Yamada had some pictures that had so much plant life you had needed to ask her what all the green was. It was fascinating. Sometimes when she was telling you about the old days, she would bring a big green tentacled looking plant in, she calls it aloe. It doesn’t look much like the other plants in her pictures. You wonder if it’s like the fungus that seems so prevalent in the tower of barbs. She claims it heals burns among other things so it might be.  
After helping with her dishwasher and getting her internet back hooked up, you chat for a bit just keeping her company. It’s been about two weeks since her daughter had last sent a letter so she should be getting one any day now. She seemed to mostly live for those letters. “Mrs. Yamada? Do you want me to help you write her a letter back this time?” You offer.  
“I would love that; however, I don’t know how I would get it to her? I don’t usually know the address until she sends me something. “she putters over to her desk and shuffles some things around till she finds what she’s looking for. She brings you some blank papers and a pen. You smile and take the supplies. “That’s ok! Next time a letter comes we will send this one that day using the address from the new one. That sound like a plan?” She smiles, her dentures looking like perfect teeth. “Alright what would you like to tell her? “

She has you write the following:

My dearest Momoko,  
I love you. I wish I thought to write to you years ago.  
One of my neighbor’s children comes to see me and helps me with things I’m no longer able, he came up with this idea.  
Your father passed away two years ago, I miss him and you very much.  
I'm sorry I didn't think to tell you sooner.  
It's been a bit rough without him here.  
I know you are busy out exploring the world and I am so proud of you.  
It would mean everything to me if you would come visit every now and then.  
It sounds silly but it would put me at ease to see you and know you’re doing well.  
With so much love,  
Mom

You smile as you finish penning it for her and putting it in an envelope. “You are welcome to call me as soon as you get a letter from her and I’ll come help get the address on this one and go mail it for you ok?” She nods and shuffles to the kitchen, coming back a few minutes later with a small cookie tin. “thank you so much sweetheart.” She pats your cheek gently, “these are for you and your family. Remember to bring the tin back so I can make more next time!” You nod giving her a hug which she returns happily. She was like a grandma to you. “alright well I need to go get ready for school Tomorrow. You take care ok? Call the house if you need anything.” She nods. “You be safe on your way home ok?” You nod heading out.


End file.
